No. ro2. 


Whoman’s Union Adissionary \ 
ae Society. 


\ 


EL ELEESSARALA;: 
By Miss Sarau F, GARDNER. 


ITTLE footsteps patter through the 

lbs house, the silver anklets with their 

glitter and jingle adding to the 

music of the sweet prattle and merry laughter 

of babyhood. Now up, now down, holding 

out tiny hands to be led, now falling, then 
caught up to be petted and loved. 

Little Sarala, the seventh child and only 
daughter in a family where six large boys 
make the happy parents believe that they 
are favored of the gods, has received a 
welcome and.is loved and caressed by all. 
Had she been the first child, and had the 
others been girls instead of boys, how differ- 
ent her fate. But she is the seventh, and one 
girl can be tolerated. Besides, a baby is a 
baby, and so dear and smiling a baby as 
this looks out of loving eyes, expecting to 


(2) 


receive only love and tenderness. Alas for 
those who look but do not have ! 2 

Sarala’s babyhood is a very pleasant one. 
The father tolerates, the boys look upon her 
as a plaything, pet and spoil her, decking her 
with jewels and feeding her with many more 
sweetmeats than are good for her, and the 
mother clasps her to her bosom as only a 
mother can, and the tiny girl basks in the 
sunshine of a loving, happy home, knowing 
only smiles and caresses. 

Another scene and our little Sarala is 
twelve years old. She is merry and happy 
still, but the laughing eyes have less fun in 
them to-night and her lips have not the shadow 
of a smile upon them. It would not be 
proper for Sarala to be merry to-night, for it 
is one of her wedding nights, as the cere- 
monies have been going on for a long time. 
For a girl to laugh and be merry at her 
wedding is very improper indeed. The man, 
three times her age, sitting opposite, is her 
husband or will be when these weary days 
are over. Poor Sarala has been through so 
many days, has been dressed in her finery so 
long, that she is quite worn out. They 
seemed to her in the beginning only a series 


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of pleasant enjoyments, into which she 
entered with all the interest that a new 
thing gives to childhood, not in the least 
realizing that it meant separation from home 
and all the dear loved ones and associations. 
To-night she is tired and wishes she were in 
bed where indeed she ought tobe. She has 
been affianced to this man for some time, 
but has been allowed until now to remain 
with her parents. Now, however, she is old 
enough according to law to take her place in 
her husband’s house as his third wife, for he 
has already lost two girl-wives. So the real 
wedding ceremony is taking place and is 
almost over, and to-morrow or next day she 
will go into a totally strange household 
presided over by her husband’s mother, a 
stern old woman who has long ago forgotten 
when she herself came into the family a 
trembling, homesick young bride, and our 
sweet, loving Sarala is again lost to our sight. 

Another scene three years later—this time 
we find ourselves in the wards of a hospital ; 
screens are placed to keep the public gaze 
from a young girl who is lying senseless on 
acot. Doctorsstand about her with anxious 
faces and the hurried use of the stomach- 


(4) 


pump tells the story. The girl has poisoned 
herself and every effort is being made to 
bring her back to life but in vain, our Sarala, 
for she it is, has by her own hand ended her 
life. An hour later and the young girl of 
fifteen is beyond human power to help. A 
man stands by with indifferent, hardened 
face watching the result of the means used 
for her restoration. It is her father-in-law. 
“What led her to this?”’ is asked of him. 
With a shrug of the shoulders he replies, 
“How can I tell? Mothers-in-law are, you 
know, sometimes a little severe on young 
wives, and who can interfere?”’ Yes, one 
knows only too well. Out from a mother’s 
love and care, out from one’s own home into 
that of a stern mother-in-law, unsympathetic, 
often cruelly unkind husband, teasing sister- 
in-law, blows and harsh treatment taking the 
place of kindness and love, the young wife 
in a fit of despair swallows opium, (of which, 
unfortunately, there is always enough at 
hand), and so ends her misery and her life. 

A fancy sketch? An overdrawn picture of 
the imagination? Not at all. 

I stood last week at the bedside of a young 
girlsin the medical hospital, whose young 


(5) 


life was rapidly ebbing away from the effect 
of opium poison. I asked her father-in-law 
_who stood by, “Why?” and received the 
answer I have already woven into my story. 
A uurse said to me, “ This is the third child- 
wife that has been brought to the hospital 
in the same condition during the last month.” 
Three cases of suicide by child-wives in one 
month, in one hospital only! And one 
scarcely opens a newspaper that he does not 
see the notice of this same thing happening 
elsewhere. 

What shall be done? What can be done? 
What can the women and girls of America 
do? We must have more missionaries whose 
work shall be among the women and girls of 
this country. These girls must be taught to 
look beyond the present suffering, and take 
their burdens to the Burden Bearer. Miser- 
able in this life, with no hope for the one to 
come, what is there better for them than to 
put an end to it all, by swallowing poison? 
When they have been taught about Him 
who shall wipe away all tears, who will take 
away all sorrow and crying, they will be 
more willing to wait till He shall plead their 
cause. But now they know little or nothing, 


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and never having been taught habits of self- 
control, they do what seems to them the 
only thing to do, put an end to themselves. 
Come and help them you who can. We 
need at least four women immediately for 
this work. Earnest women who will devote 
themselves to the women and girls of this 
country. 

Who will come? And who will provide the 
means to support them after they are here? 
Please, you who read this, think about it. 
Pray over it. 


Miss GARDNER has devoted herself for 
fifteen years to the women and children of 
India under the auspices of the WOMAN’S 
UNION MISSIONARY SOCIETY, an undenom- 
inational association organized in 1860; the 
first formed in America for the special ob- 
ject of elevating and Christianizing heathen 
women. It has planted five stations in India, 
as centres for zenana teaching, while schools 
for girls, and a medical mission are important 
features. Thousands of women and children 
have been reached in the past, and wide 
doors are opening, where forty-eight mis- 


(7) 


sionaries are actively employed. As this 
Society is dependent on voluntary contri- 
butions, will you be one to aid it? 

The Missionary Link, published monthly, 
gives full accounts of zenana work. Price, 
50 cents a year. 


Officers of the Whoman’s Unton Missionary 


Society: 
President, ; . Mrs. HENRY JOHNSON, 
Corresponding Secretary, Miss 5. D,. DOREMUS., 
Assistant Treasurer . Miss ELIZABETH STONE 


Mission Room: 


G7 BIBLES OUSE, NE We VORKSCTILY: 


LEAFLETS ON WORK IN INDIA 


(NOW IN PRINT) 


oman’ {rio Hfssionar Society 


Mission Room, 67 BispLtE Housk, NEw York. 


100. 


= 4 


Each, Cts. 
What a Pair of Slippers Did for 

Indiatse. : : : 2 
Befutti’s Doll. : : 2 
Gift for a Little Bride : eat 
Kasheba’s Plea . 3 
Givers for Jesus . 3 
Wayside Guests . 2 
Saved . 2 
Sad Weddings 2 
Shall We Teach Them? 2 
The Household Pet 4 


Jessonda: A Hindu Widow 
Story and Work 5 ; eeree 


Desolate Widows : 4 


-Karpoo: A STorY OF ZENANA 


LIFE é ; ; , sO 


